In March of 2021, the Military Review published an article titled The Eighteenth Gap, in which then-Lieutenant General Charles Pede and Colonel (COL) Peter Hayden reiterated the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps priority of preserving legal maneuver space for commanders during the transition away from counter-insurgency (COIN) to large-scale combat operations (LSCO). Overcoming the eighteenth gap requires the JAG Corps to message the difference between law of armed conflict (LOAC) constraints and the extra-legal policy limitations developed during years of COIN. Experience at Warfighter Exercises reveals that the JAG Corps has successfully messaged this need for legal maneuver space to division and corps leadership.

On 31 August 2021, at 11:59 p.m. in Kabul, Afghanistan, the last American Soldiers boarded five C-17 Globemaster III aircraft and departed Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA), effectively concluding America’s longest conflict and marking the end of the twenty-year Global War on Terror.

This is the second article in a series by Michael Jones concerning legislative affairs. A Primer on the National Defense Authorization Act, the first piece in the series, can be found in issue 3, 2022.

Achieving your desired result in court through motions shapes the contours of the case you litigate at trial. Winning motions helps you litigate the case you want to litigate. Successful results from motions can give you time to react and refine your trial strategy. However, many counsel are not dedicating the time and effort to shaping the field of trial by presenting winning motions to the judge.

You are a newly assigned defense counsel in the Army’s Trial Defense Service (TDS). One of your first clients is charged with physically abusing her baby so severely that the child has broken bones and brain hemorrhaging. After meeting with the client several times to discuss the facts of the case, she makes an off-hand comment about being the victim of childhood trauma. Something in the back of your mind clicks, and you ask the client to tell you more about the abuse she suffered. This conversation turns into an hours-long discussion in which you uncover more information about her life than in all the previous meetings.

The Army’s mission is “to deploy, fight, and win our Nation’s wars by providing ready, prompt, and sustained land dominance by Army forces across the full spectrum of conflict as part of the Joint Force.” Any obstacle to the Army’s ability to pursue its mission warrants careful analysis and efforts to eliminate it. The obstacle this paper focuses on is the cost of grievances, judgments, and settlements for labor and employment actions.

How many times have you heard the phrase, “Treat people with dignity and respect”? Have you ever thought about what it really means? Have you stopped to consider why we repeat it so much in our laws, regulations, policies, and leadership initiatives? I invite you to reflect on these and a few more questions.